Old Village Korean Restaurant

Recently Emi's parents and us decided we wanted to go out for Korean food. Shoreline and Lynnwood is filled with great Korean restaurants all along Hwy 99. One of our favorite places to frequent is Old Village Korean Restaurant. The food is really good, but also the service is usually pretty solid which isn't always a given at Korean restaurants.

Emi ordered their bibimbap which is a warm bowl of rice topped with namul (sauteed and seasoned vegetables) and gochujang (chili pepper paste). Thanks to Wikipedia for help with the description. Emi's bibimbap also came with marinated and grilled beef, bean sprouts, cucumber, mushrooms, and spinach. This dish has a great variety of flavors and is an ideal meal for people who love vegetables.

I ordered the Old Village seafood tofu soup which I can now say is my favorite tofu soup. I've had it at a few places, but Old Village's has the best flavor. This soup can look a little intimidating to people who don't usually eat Korean food, but if you like spicy, flavorful soup, you have to try it. The tofu is soft and goes well with the seafood flavors and spicy kim chee. I usually need a few extra napkins after I order this to wipe up my sweat from this spicy soup.

My soup also came with kalbi spare ribs and we also ordered some dumplings and japchae on the side. The Japchae is made from cellphane noodles stir fried in sesame oil with various thinly sliced vegetables and beef, flavored with soy sauce and a little bit of sugar.

The highlight and primary reason why Emi loves Korean food is the sides!!! Emi loves to eat all of the different types of side dishes including her favorites: bean sprouts, watercress or spinach namul, kimchee, and sweet potato salad. The best part is that most restaurants serve unlimited sides with your main dishes.

If you've never gone out for Korean food before, hopefully now you'll have a better idea of a few things you can try. However I think the true Korean eating experience has to include Korean BBQ. We've heard of a couple other good Korean BBQ places off of Hwy 99 that hopefully we'll get the opportunity to try soon so keep an eye out for a future post.

- Kyle